Thursday, May 16th marks the US premiere of the 12th Star Trek flick: Star Trek Into Darkness. Like the 2009 film simply titled Star Trek, the new Into Darkness is directed by JJ Abrams and follows the adventures of the crew of the [new] original Enterprise under the command of a reimagined Captain Kirk played by Chris Pine. While the action-oriented direction of the last film, cockier Kirk, aggressive lens flares, and design of the new old U.S.S. Enterprise might have ruffled a few feathers, the 2009 entry kicked up the production quality of Star Trek films by an order of magnitude or two.

Official movie tie-in apps are a dime-a-dozen these days, with every film studio looking to every avenue possible to promote their multi-million-dollar blockbusters. The latest is for the upcoming Star Trek Into Darkness, which while not due in theaters until May of this year, has launched an app that attempts to draw you deeper into the the J.J. Abrams Star Trek universe. Or at least the promotions for the film.

Star Trek: Into Darkness is the sequel to J.J. Abrams reboot and re-imagining of the classic sci-fi series, and the official teaser trailer is now available on iTunes. Thankfully, it looks a lot better than the decidedly not-Star Trek looking announcement trailer that preceded it. This one has, you know, the Enterprise and its crew, rather than just Benedict don't-call-me-Khan Cumberbatch acting all Sith-vengency.

You'll have to wait until next year to catch Star Trek: Into Darkness in theaters, and find out if everyone's favorite Sherlock really is everyone's favorite eugenically altered warlord (or, who knows, Harry Mudd?), but if you want to discuss it now, join me in our movie and TV forum Star Trek: Into Darkness thread.

In the meantime, you can also grab the first movie on iTunes now, as well as a lot of other previous generation Star Trek.